An angry mob attacked police on Sunday after an 11-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly raped and then murdered in Vaishali district of north Bihar.

The body was found on Saturday night in a wetland at Khapura village, 1km from the victim’s native Harpur Gopal village.
The
class-4 student is suspected to have been gangraped before she was killed. Police are waiting for the postmortem report to confirm the rape.

The child had gone missing three days ago, said Vaishali superintendent of police (SP) Suresh Prasad Choudhary.

“She had gone out of her house to buy a packet of incense sticks to be used for the Chhath festival (which concluded on Saturday), but did not return,” the SP said.

On Sunday, protesters resorted to stone-pelting and gheraoed the Bidupur police station, about 40km north of state capital Patna.Four police personnel were injured in the stone-pelting.

Some protesters even lobbed crude bombs. One person, identified as Sudhir Paswan, sustained splinter injuries and was admitted to the Hajipur Sadar hospital.Police fired tear gas shells to disperse the mob and riot police were brought in from neighbouring police station areas.

The protesters were pacified only after Vaishali district magistrate Jitendra Srivastav announced a compensation of Rs. 5 lakh to the victim’s kin and the SP promised that the culprits would be nabbed soon.

He said so far a woman had been arrested in connection with the murder while eight people were held for rioting.

The SP said the arrested woman ran a toddy shop, where criminals used to assemble.

He said police had lodged an FIR against the rioters.

This is the second time in less than two months that the Bidupur police station was assailed by the public protesting a rape.

In late September, the police station was attacked with stones and a police vehicle was set afire by a mob protesting the gangrape of two minor girls in another Bidupur village.

Locals alleged that the culprits in this case were yet to be arrested.